Surly KM or inbred 29er

I'm looking at trying a 29er and, although I love the look of the Salsa El Mariachi, it is a bit expensive.

Surly Karate Monkey frame and fork can be had for less than £300 and so can Inbreds with a Salsa rigid fork. Any comments on these two or others for about the same price? I want to run gears and ideally would like rack mounts too.

I'm shifting bits from a 2007 clockwork, so if anyone is interested in a swap of frame, forks, wheels etc let me know.

Can't comment on the Inbred. I do love my KM thought. Not the most subtle frame but a great fun ride, and ludicrously adaptable (mine's been a long flat commute speed bike, a London street hack, and is now in its normal mode as a Chilterns winter Singlespeed)

Have never ridden an Inbred but I've had a KM for about 18 months now. It's a great bike and you can do pretty much anything you want to with it. The latest version is disc only so looks a bit 'cleaner' than it used to. Truly huge tyre clearance on it.

KM is a lovely ride used to be a right old faff getting the back wheel out, but apparently the newer versions are better and you don't have to undo the rear brake. Not exactly fast, but a nice steady bimble machine.

inbred a nice and neutral riding bike, bit of a cow in tight singletrack

in summary both nice bikes for heavy old bits of gas pipe, both will make you smile, both have niggles. go for whichever one comes is the nicest colour

Not tried a KM, but recently swapped my Inbred for a SIR9. Inbred rides like a bike way way above what it costs. SIR9 is obviously a slightly different experience but had funds not allowed I would have been more than happy to have kept the Inbred. Mine rode best with Singulars steel fork, from the Swift. For what they go for on here (£35-£40 usually) its an absolute steal. Its identical to the £175 Niner steel fork, & actually few grams heavier...!!!
Speak to CharlietheBikemonger, he sells KM's.

Bought a second hand KM off here about 6 months back. It's great to ride, very versatile and really capable. I did a longish loop here on Dartmoor yesterday on it and it coped with everything from linking road sections, grassy climbs and some really rocky and rooty descents without any problems. I beat a guy on an FS down one of them

I don't personally find getting the rear wheel out that much of a faff, but I've been riding a Surly 1x1 (and a Cotic roadrat) for a while as well so I guess I've got used to track ends and discs.

My frame is one of the older ones which doesn't have rack mounts, but it does have lugs at the bottom of the seatstay - my 1x1 is the same and I've managed to fit rack, guards and discs to that using some spacers on the bottom lugs and a Salsa rack lock - linky below:

I've had a KM (last version, in blue) and it was nice enough, but the top tube always felt a bit high. Never felt quite right going downhill either and being corrected for 80mm suspension was limiting. Great mud clearance. You should check whether it is now ok to run discs and rack together as they did say not to. Sold it after a couple of years and decided to stick with 26" wheels ..... but kept one set of 29er wheels 'just in case'.

Now have a slot Inbred 29er (the wheels were looking lonely and it seemed a shame not to). Frame plus 100mm Manitou towers set me back £350 (Towers were on offer for around £150 with CharlieTBM and CRC). Much prefer the ride to the KM. Top tube is better length for me, standover vastly better, but mud clearance (whilst ok) is slightly less. Lower rack mounts look fine, but no upper mounts. Very happy to have swapped to the Inbred.